SXSW is changing how we define ‘audiences’

YuMe was honored to be part of SXSW and its unique celebration of innovation across the music, film and interactive arenas.   SXSW has done something quite rare – moved beyond a conference to becoming a lexicon and legend of its own.

The SXSW festival recognizes that innovation and creativity aren’t defined by genre or by platform, but year by year, the creative forces in one genre impact and increasingly evolve into another. Online talent develops fan bases that can evolve to the big screen; musical talent is often born in digital. SXSW innovators and incubators are leading the way to how we think and define ‘audiences’.

So we leaped out of our offices and onto planes to help support some of the events you all attended during the week. At YuMe, our philosophy has strong similarities to the spirit of SXSW — we also believe audiences are multi-screen and not bound to a genre, format or device.

There was a time when people sought audiences, they looked first to TV — and defined them simply by gender or age. We know audiences are more like ‘currents of interest’ and each of you, like consumers everywhere, find their interests and content where it’s most accessible. In this era of technology and devices, individual consumers and their passions for particular content are at the heart of every audience – and where brands and publishers want to engage.

The power of an audience starts with every individual impression. And we’d like to take a moment to celebrate you. And we hope that as you peeled through your fast moving days and nights celebrating art and innovation, you did so at least one via our YuMe pedi-cabs.